Thursday 11 August 2011

Festival of Quilts: Part 1

I am back in the hotel after a heavy day of shopping at The Festival of Quilts. Note to self: when you're going to be on your feet shopping for 7 hours, don't go to the bookshop first!

I very stupidly forgot to take my camera so settled for shopping today, quilt ogling tomorrow. Here's a run down of my splurges tactical purchases.

For the hex-a-long I decided on shot cottons instead of solids to frame my spots. I thought they would give the quilt a little bit more interest. I got both of these fat-eighth stacks from Oakshott Fabrics and have just spent a fun half hour in the hotel bar matching up fabrics to spots. I guess that doesn't happen often because the waiter moseyed on over to ask what I was doing (I wonder what he'll think when I start basting my diamonds!).


I also fell in love with this large scale floral by Kaffe Fassett. I thought I could fussy cut the large flowers for the odd non-pieced hexie. They will probably have other flowers poking in the edges but I'll see how it works. I bought a half yard which should give me about 8 big flowers. This beauty came from Doughty's


I didn't plan on buying it but mum was inspired after getting her book signed by Kaffe himself and spent 45 mins picking 21 different prints for a quilt. I had to buy at least one. It would be rude not to!

For non-hex-a-long quilting I bought this book:


Seriously! There really are 5500 quilt blocks in there. Do I just start at number 1 and keep going?

I promise I'll have my camera tomorrow so you can see some of the beautiful quilts in the exhibition, including the hysterical winner of the group quilt section which has a lot of meerkats.

6 comments:

  1. I'm going on Sunday. My bank balance will only stand one day at the moment!!!

    Lovely fabric purchases and the book looks interesting. i've not come across one before with soooooo many blocks in it. Will have to look out for it. Have a good day there tomorrow.

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  2. Lol, at bookshop comment - the first quilt show I went to, I did just that! Now, I plan in the bookshop last :-). Those Oakshott solids look beautiful, will be just the thing to frame your hexies. I think they are a lot softer than regular solids. Look forward to your FOQ pics - I am off there on Saturday, can't wait!

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  3. Wow! It sounds great. Enjoy the rest of your time there!

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  4. ahhh, Oakshots. So, so beautiful. Only one place in the US sells them - and then only sporadically. So I order from the UK.
    I haven't been able to cut in to any of it because it's just so lovely in the packs.

    Sounds like a fabulous show. One of these years I hope to attend.

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  5. I cannot wait to see when you start piecing your hexalong!

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  6. I bought the same book at the FoQs to add to the book I already had which only featured 1000 blocks. I'm planning an English Paper Piecing patchwork-a-long and will soon be breaking it out to see what catches my eye. Danielle

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